Faculty artists series : program 1

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edward johnson building 2
faculty of music
university of foronto

FACULTY ARTISTS SERIES
PROGRAM I

WALTER HALL
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1980
8 P.M,

NEXT CONCERT: - U2 of T. Symphony Orchestra, October 18, 8 pm
MacMillan Theatre :
NEXT FACULTY ARTISTS CONCERT: November 1, 1980, 8 pm
Walter Hall

‘ PROGRAM
Scherzo for Violin and Piano in C minor JOHANNES BRAHMS
DAVID ZAFER, violin; PATRICIA PARR, piano

The Scherzo in C minor is one of Brahms' earliest surviving com-
positions. It was the 20-year-old composer's contribution to the
famous F.A.E. ("Frei aber einsam") Sonata dedicated to the
violinist Joseph Joachim. The Sonata's first movement was com-
posed by Albert Dietrich, and the second and fourth by Robert
Schumann. It was first performed by Joachim with Clara Schumann
at the piano on October 27, 1853. The F.A.E. theme, derived
from Joachim's typically romantic personal motto, pervades the
other movements, but is absent in its literal form from the
Scherzo. Its general contour and, in one place, its pitches

are clearly audible in the Scherzo's second strain, however,

and there is another reference to it in the retransition from
the very brief Trio to the repetition of the Scherzo. The
overall shape of the piece is a conventional ABA, and a brief
coda in the tonic major key refers to the theme of the Trio.

Sonata in G major, Op. 78 JOHANNES BRAHMS

Vivace ma non troppo
Adagio - Piu andante - Adagio
Allegro molto moderato

DAVID ZAFER, violin; PATRICIA PARR, piano

The G major Sonata is the earliest of Brahms' published duos for
piano and violin, but is actually his second work for the medium.
It was completed a full quarter century after the youthful
Scherzo and published in 1880. The nickname "Rain Sonata" is
occasionally appended to it because the third movement's princi-
pal theme is borrowed from two songs in the composer's earlier
song cycle op. 59 (1873). Its initial rhythmic motive links it
to the first theme of the first movement as well, and is thus an
element in the Sonata's cyclic unity. The first movement is
full of typically Brahmsian rhythmic subtleties, and here the
violin takes the lead, initiating all of the themes in the move-
ment's exposition. The second movement neatly combines the

functions of a slow middle movement with the ternary intermezzo
form which frequently fulfills the scherzo function in Brahms'
four movement cycles. Here the piano takes the lead, both in the
Adagio and the Andante sections, as well as in the coda, which
refers to the material of the Andante, but in the key and tempo of
the Adagio. The finale is set in the tonic minor, but begins tan-
talizingly with an extended dominant pedal. A large chunk of the
Adagio, in its own key of Eb major, is set in the middle of the
development section, and the return to the tonic major in G is
reserved for the coda. There we hear yet another reference to the
Adagio music and the cyclic "rain" motive.

INTERMISSION

Rastlose Liebe (D. 138) FRANZ SCHUBERT
Du bist die Ruh (D. 776) :
Gretchen am Spinnrade (D. 118)

Immer leiser, Op. 105, no. 2 JOHANNES BRAHMS
Von ewiger Liebe, Op. 43, no. 1

PATRICIA KERN, mezzo-soprano, GRETA KRAUS, piano

Our group of Schubert Lieder presents two early settings based on
Goethe and one relatively late one of a poem by Friedrich Ruckert.
"Rastlose Liebe" was composed in 1815 and published in 1821 as

the first of Schubert's five Gedichte von Goethe, Op. 5. Though
the sixteenth-note figure in the right hand of the piano part
provides an element of continuity, the song is through-composed
and appropriately "breathless" as it rushes from start to finish.
"Du bust die Ruh" was composed in 1823 and published as the third
of Vier Gedichte von Ruckert und Graf Platen, op. 59 in 1826. The
first four of the poem's five strophes are grouped into two pairs,
each set to the same music. The final strophe is set to a strik-
ing and dramatic variant of this same musical paragraph, which is
repeated for further rhetorical emphasis. "Gretchen am Spinnrade"
was composed in 1814 and published as op. 2 in 1821. While it is
not absolutely necessary to know why Gretchen's "heart is heavy"
or that it is Faust whom she wishes to "hold and kiss", it does
illuminate the composer’ s setting with its fusion of naive, folk-
song- inspired melody in the refrain, and dramatic, almost operatic
declamation in the verses.

‘Brahms is also represented by one late and one relatively early
song. The five songs of op. 105 were composed in 1886 and pub-
lished in 1889. "Immer leiser" consists of two long strophes
which are set to parallel, but by no means identical sections of
music. The repetition is obscured by the fact that the voice
sets in three measures later the second time through. A modu-
lation to the relative major at the end of the first section is
balanced by approximately the same music in the tonic major at
the end of the song. "Von ewiger Liebe" is a dialogue between
two lovers. The first part sets the scene, and introduces the
boy's speech. Each of these elements has a distinctive melodic
setting, but the whole is unified by metre and tonality, and
rounded off by a coda. The girl's speech is introduced more
simply, but coincides with a change of tempo (slower), metre

(3/4 to 6/8) and mode (minor to major). Her melody, while inter-
estingly like that of the boy, is nevertheless distinctive. The
switch to the major mode for the girl's reply to the boy's rather
hesitant petition means that what began in darkness in the

lowest register ends affirmatively in a higher register.

Variations on an original Theme in FRANZ SCHUBERT
Ab major, Op. 35 ‘. 813)

PATRICIA PARR, GRETA KRAUS, piano

Schubert's theme and eight variations were composed in 1824 and
published a year later. The theme is in the usual binary form
and is perfectly symmetrical. There is a move to the mediant

(C minor) at the double bar, and what should be a reprise co-
inciding with the return of the tonic in the second half only
begins that way, but quickly diverges. Primarily "figural"
variations alternate with primarily melodic, even contrapuntal
ones. Variations one and two are of the former type, and three,
the latter in a slower tempo. Four and five are alternately
figural and melodic, and six is figural while at the same time
using a simplified version of the melody. Seven is slower
again, and its stricter part writing recalls three. Its second
half is extended, and pauses on the dominant, preparing varia-
tion eight, the "finale", which sets in without recalling or even
strongly suggesting the melody of the original theme. It is
twice the length of the other variations, providing an opportu-
nity for an appropriately high-spirited coda.

Notes by Robert Falck